Comment

Thanks, Chris, for the respectful response. I meant the question sincerely. I di get the seeming triteness of it, especially melodically.

But as a budding songwriter, I think I immediately felt that what seemed so obvious in the wordsmithing was the result of some serious craft mastery.

(Begging the reader's indulgence):

"Ebony and ivory

Live together in perfect harmony

Side by side on my piano

Keyboard

Oh Lord

Why don't we?"

Now, for however many centuries black and white keys have been arranged such as they are, I was struck with why no one had, until then, thought to draw the obvious parallel with black/white societal relations.

Maybe it'd been done in some obscure poem somewhere, sure. But this was on the radio in everybody's car--and we nodded our heads and tapped our feet to some, dare I say, thought-provoking social commentary. That's not nuthin'.

But more to the point, I remember hearing Paul say in an interview--and I was a kid writing lyrics, so it stuck with me--that (paraphrasing) sometimes a songwriter gets it just right when some Joe Blow of a listener thinks to himself "of course ... I could've done that."

Come to think of it, I wonder if that interview was when "Silly Love Songs" came out--another song for which Paul suffered slings and arrows! Maybe I'm misremembering that ... But I do love me some happy pop lyrics -- so "here I go again"...

"You'd think that people would've

Had enough of silly love songs

I look around me and I see it isn't so.

Some people wanna fill the world

With silly love songs.

And what's wrong with that?"